Dollars for Scholars Scores Big on @15 Exchange!

Student Support Earns Scholarship America® Significant Funding through the @15 Exchange; Dollars for Scholars program finishes on top of Best Buy's quarterly competition

Scholarship America®, the nation’s premier nonprofit scholarship and educational support organization, announced today that their Dollars for Scholars program will receive a donation worth $102,500 from Best Buy, Inc. The organization received 41% of the total vote from students participating in Best Buy's @15 Exchange, in which Dollars for Scholars competed against three other national charities for a portion of the retailer's quarterly $250,000 donation.

The @15 Exchange is part of Best Buy’s teen empowerment website, At15.com. The site gives teens ages 13-18 the opportunity to earn points through a variety of activities which they can use to vote for the charity of their choice.

“We are thrilled that students selected Dollars for Scholars as their charity of choice,” said Lauren Segal, President & CEO of Scholarship America. “We provided teens with the opportunity to help themselves and their peers gain access to college through scholarships, and I am happy to announce that Scholarship America will provide four scholarships from a portion of the Best Buy donation.”

Three $5,000 scholarships will be awarded to students who helped Scholarship America through their online participation in the @15 Exchange, and who applied for the scholarship online. One $5,500 scholarship will be awarded to the Dollars for Scholars Student Volunteer of the Year, selected from a pool of more than 370 applicants from our 1,100 chapters nationwide. All four scholarship recipients will be selected by the end of June.

“This significant donation from Best Buy, on behalf of teens, is also providing funding for our Dollars for Scholars program at a time when there is a critical need to assist students,” added Segal.

Scholarship America’s Dollars for Scholars program is a national grassroots network of more than 1,100 community-based scholarship foundations (known as Dollars for Scholars chapters) serving more than 3,800 communities across the United States in support of local students primarily through scholarships. Many chapters also provide academic support and mentoring. Scholarship America supports Dollars for Scholars chapters by assisting with chapter set-up and training, tax preparation, online tools and fundraising support.

About Scholarship America
Scholarship America is a national education service organization that mobilizes support for students getting into and graduating from college. We have three core programs that help us achieve our mission: Dollars for Scholars, Scholarship Management Services, and Dreamkeepers. Scholarship America has distributed more than $2.5 billion in scholarship assistance to more than 1.7 million students since 1958.

The Dream Award

Scholarship America’s Dream Award is a renewable scholarship fund targeted toward completion.
These annually-increasing awards will be given to students selected from across the nation
who are entering their second year of education beyond high school.

The Scholarship Coach

Scholarship America's blog, The Scholarship Coach, appears weekly at USNews.com, featuring expert advice on all kinds of scholarship issues. Here on the site, we feature a new highlight from the blog every week, and you can also download a free Scholarship Coach e-book!

Your Gift Is Crucial

Nearly 1/4 of the U.S. population owes a collective $700 billion in student loan debt. We are committed to helping more students graduate from college with less debt. A gift of just $1 a day -- for a week, for a month, or for a year -- can help ensure that students are able to achieve their goals.